All His Birds
by Aker-ldh
Summary: a life in twelve planes; Drabble collection; Challenge story in response to the Writers Anonymous Drabble Challenge
1. About the Birds and the Planes

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* * *

**author: **Aker  
**title:** All His Birds  
**TV series:** Hogan's Heroes  
**season:** from pre-series to season 6  
**rating:** PG  
**genre: **drama, humor, family ...  
**disclaimer:** _Hogan's Heroes_ is the property of CBS (and others) and no infringement of these rights is intended  
**summary:** a life in twelve planes; Drabble collection; Challenge story in response to the Writers Anonymous Drabble Challenge, October 2019:  
_Write 10 to perhaps 20 vignettes (short, distinct scenes) of exactly 100 words each that tell an overall cohesive story. Each vignette drabble in sequence should set a specific scene and have a change in character perspective, event, or location so someone doesn't just take a 1,000 word story and break it into 10 equal parts. _  
**author's note for the fandom-blind:** _Hogan's Heroes_ is a comedy series of the Sixties, which takes place between 1942 and sometime before the end of the war in a German POW camp. Robert Hogan is a Colonel in the United States Army Air Corps, commander of a bomb group, now senior prisoner of war officer in said camp, which is commanded by his German counterpart Colonel Klink. Unbeknownst to the Germans, Hogan and his group of "heroes" run an underground operation literally under the ground of Stalag 13, initially to help escapees, later on to also undertake spying and sabotage missions.  
**another note:** If you find any mistakes or errors, please send them home (meaning: please point them out to me, so that I can rectify them, if possible). Thanks.  
Update Dec. 2019: some comma mistakes corrected (thank you MagpieTales :) )

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**ALL HIS BIRDS**

–**o( 1 )o**–

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**About the Birds and the Planes**  
_1918_

The boy frowned. Attaching sticks perpendicularly atop and below of another one proved difficult.

"Whaddya doing, Robbie?"

He looked up, smiling as his little brother dropped down beside him.

"I'm making an aeroplane. Like the one uncle George is flying."

"What's a 'arrow-plain'?"

"It's –" He ruminated a moment. "It's like a big bird. But with a man in it."

"Ooooh!"

They gazed up at the sky, marveling at the wonder.

"I wanna be a bird, too!" little Edward finally declared.

Rob laughed. "No, silly. The plane is the bird, you're the rider."

Edward's face lit up. Bird-rider sounded even better.


	2. First Love

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–**o( 2 )o**–

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**First Love  
**_1921_

"Woohoooo!" Rob stretched his arms into the air-stream, face beaming with joy as the biplane plummeted into a dive. The wind pulled at his hair, bit his face, stole his breath away. He didn't care. All he cared about was the joy, the freedom of flying. If only he could sprout wings of his own.

"You wanna take the stick?" his uncle behind him called over the engine's roar.

"Really?"

"Sure."

Rob stared at the stick, hesitating, then reverently curled his fingers around the handle – the connection was instant, her energy his. He'd never felt so complete.

Jenny was gorgeous!

* * *

_A/N: Jenny – Curtiss JN-4 "Jenny", a WWI era biplane_


	3. With the Flying Cadets

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–**o( 3 )o**–

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**With the Flying Cadets**

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_A/N: I couldn't quite make up my mind, so there are two versions:_

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**Advanced Flying (in Primary Training)  
**_1929_

**Version 1**

He'd only been sharing stories about his uncle's daring war exploits, but somehow his instructor had pegged him as a bragger and decided to teach him a lesson. "Your bird," he'd said after forcing the PT-1 into a spin. Now the ground came rushing up awfully fast.

Too bad Robert had considerable flying experience.

Too bad the old Trusty had earned her nickname fair and square.

Throttling back, applying rudder, carefully pulling up. No problem at all. And a victory roll for good measure.

"Wooohoooo!" he yelled, youthful enthusiasm breaking through military rigor. "Good girl."

Despite himself, the instructor smiled.

**Version 2**

He'd only been sharing stories about his uncle's daring war exploits, but somehow his instructor had pegged him as a cocky bragger and decided to teach him a lesson. "Your bird," he'd said after forcing the PT-1 into a spin. Now the ground came rushing up awfully fast.

But Hogan was no rookie. Throttling back, applying rudder, pulling up – easy.

Until the plane stalled. His ears burned as he caught it again.

Surprisingly no disparaging remark followed. "Good job," the instructor judged instead. After all, he was no bonehead. He recognized potential when he saw it: cocky, yes, but capable.

* * *

_A/N: PT-1 – Consolidated PT-1 "Trusty", biplane, USAAC trainer aircraft for basic flying training_

_A/N: Advanced Flying, where pilots learn air acrobatics among other things, was the second half of flight training in the Air Corps after Primary_

* * *

**Outtake:**

**Flyer's Spirit  
**_1929_

Everything looked gray: the few buildings, the landing strip, the planes, even the people. The Great Depression wasn't just a condition of your wallet, it was a state of mind.

It had to change, if only in the small world of Duncan Field.

~oOo~

First the simple lettering of "trusty" appeared on a Trusty's flank. The instructors chuckled.

Then an eagle art suddenly graced another's body. They frowned.

Following rapidly thereafter were girls, sharks, pirates … – the commanders went mad. But the cadets performed better than ever before. They loved their planes, old and decrepit as they were: they had a soul.


	4. Neither Snow nor Rain nor Gloom of Night

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–**o( 4 )o**–

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_A/N: "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds" – unofficial motto of the United States Postal Service_

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**Neither Snow nor Rain nor Gloom of Night  
**_1934_

Unfamiliar routes, radio guidance system, even aircraft, together with dangerous winds and icing – to send out a plane in this weather was sheer stupidity. As section control officer, Hogan had grounded all of his own birds, but someone over at Cleveland obviously hadn't gotten the message: safety first! Not: mail first!

So, standing at Newark Airport in a snowstorm, he waited for landing lights to appear.

They didn't; his adjutant did: the plane had crashed. Fatally.

Hogan acknowledged stoically but kept staring, hoping, waiting. For a brother who would never come. Icy snowflakes wet his face. Or was it tears?

* * *

_A/N: In 1934 an ill-prepared Air Corps had to take over public air mail service during an especially severe winter, which let to several deaths and became subsequently known as the air mail scandal in the US press._


	5. Pancake

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–**o( 5 )o**–

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**Pancake  
**_1937_

As test pilot, Hogan had thought he was going to test airplanes. Not vice versa.

But this ship seemed hellbent on testing her pilots instead. Shortly after take-off for his familiarization flight, the empennage controls failed, and they had to employ all their skills to steer and land the bird with throttles only. Bailing wasn't an option.

Drenched in sweat, pulse racing, they finally touched down, way too hard and way too fast, slumping in their seats the minute the aircraft had rolled to a stop.

"I daresay this bird needs some work," Hogan observed dryly.

The co-pilot snorted, shaken.

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_A/N: pancake – hard landing, with or without undercarriage_

_A/N: ship – a big aircraft, here a Boeing Y1B-17, the service test aircraft model of the B-17 Flying Fortress (299 was the prototype)_

_A/N: After the crash of the 299 prototype and the nose-over – only five days after her first flight – of 36-149 due to fused brakes, Congress threatened to end the program, if yet another crash occurred._


	6. Bumf

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–**o( 6 )o**–

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**Bumf  
**_1939_

Paper pusher, penguin, ground wallah – RAF pilots had a lot of colorful labels for people like him. The chair-borne division: Air Force officers that did nothing but fly mahogany Spitfires. He wished there was at least a resemblance. But instead of instruments and a flight stick, he had papers, more papers, and a pencil. Some pilot he was. It seemed the higher the rank, the higher the file stack. He was a major and had already enough. How did generals manage to do anything useful? He sighed and signed another document.

High time he saw some action.

A fateful wish.

* * *

_A/N: bumf (RAF) – useless paperwork_


	7. Baptism of Fire – One of The Few

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–**o( 7 )o**–

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**Baptism of Fire – One of "The Few"  
**_1940_

A Blenburgher: cramped, flimsy – his. It felt marvelous to get airborne again. Thrill was battling hard with professionalism and levelheadedness, but Hogan had learned to handle that.

What he hadn't factored in, was the fear. It just hadn't occurred to him that he might actually die. Every pilot knew the theoretical possibility, but it only ever happened to others, never yourself – until it did. He almost blacked out as the windshield fractured and searing pain slashed through his arm. The realization was brutal.

But Hogan survived. His navigator didn't. The cannon shell tore him to pieces.

He'd been only nineteen.

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_A/N: Blenburgher – Bristol Blenheim _ _(here Mk IV)__, a British light bomber with weak armoring and armament__; the navigator is seated right next to the pilot_

_A/N: Winston Churchill summed up the effect of the battle and the contribution of RAF Fighter Command, RAF Bomber Command, RAF Coastal Command and the Fleet Air Arm with the words, "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few". (Wikipedia)_


	8. Her Final Flight

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–**o( 8 )o**–

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**Her Final Flight  
**_1942_

A pack of fighters had ambushed the bombers, tearing apart what flak had left. Hogan's right wing was ablaze, the left smoking, and flames roared into the cockpit, choking him.

His muscles burned from keeping the ship level until his remaining crew had bailed out. Now it was his turn. Coughing, he crawled through his side window, the air-stream pulling flames along, their heat engulfing him. Finally, he fell free. Tumbling over and over, he saw his _Lady_ tilting, falling, rupturing apart …

Again he lived where others died. A bitter blessing. And Jerry was already waiting.

So was the guilt.

* * *

_A/N: Lady – referring to Hogan's Boeing B-17E Flying Fortress; the proper escape route is through the forward entrance hatch or the bomb bay, which I now proclaim to be blocked by the fire :P_


	9. The Flight of the Valkyrie

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–**o( 9 )o**–

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_**season: **__1; spoiler for the episode 1.05: _The Flight of the Valkyrie

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**The Flight of the Valkyrie  
**_1942_

To find humor in this situation was … unexpected. Being shot down and sent off to a POW camp had been hell, but with the operation well underway and a new purpose in life, Hogan felt almost content and some of the old thrill returning. How amusingly appropriate to his rising spirit, to procure a plane for ferrying the Baroness out of Germany, like a noble shield-maiden riding off to Valhalla. Cheerfully, he painted contours on the Ercoupe's nose, letting LeBeau color the graffiti.

He couldn't wait to see the _Valkyrie_ soar away. Right under the noses of the Wagner-loving Germans.

* * *

_A/N: Ercoupe – ERCO 415-C Ercoupe, identified thanks to Wind-in-the-Sage_

_A/N: They paint a mounted Valkyrie on the plane's nose in the episode; that Hogan does some painting occasionally occurs in ffs, and I like it._


	10. The Devil

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–**o( 10 )o**–

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_**season:**__ 2; spoiler for the episode 2.01: _Hogan Gives a Birthday Party_, wherein Colonel Hogan and General Biedenbender, the man who brought Hogan down, engage in a battle of cunning and wit_

* * *

**The Devil  
**_1943_

He'd been barely able to control his anger and disgust in the face of Biedenbender's continued gloating and boasting. Images of dying bombers, taking the lives of men with them, Williams' burning chute, a Me strafing the helpless crewmen, his own feelings of impotence kept flashing before his inner eye.

Now, in another bomber, on another mission, it was payback time.

Was it petty-minded to experience malicious joy, wrong to revel in well-deserved revenge for his boys? To feel the need to slap his victory right in the general's face?

Maybe, but he did it anyway.

And it felt good.

* * *

_A/N: bomber – the episode is hazy about Biedenbender's transport plane, apparently a bomber. A Heinkel (most likely the twin-engine He 111) is mentioned earlier, but footage shows a four-engine Focke-Wulf Fw 200C Condor (amongst a Fortress and a Lancaster) of Kampfgeschwader KG 40, which was stationed in France and therefore can't be right, either. However, the Condor, originally a long-range airliner, was frequently used as private transport craft of the upper echelon of the Reich, so Biedenbender might have used one, too, and the heroes were only expecting him to arrive in a Heinkel. All speculations, of course._


	11. Touching Heaven

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–**o( 11 )o**–

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_**season:**__ 6; spoiler for the episode 6.15: _Easy Come, Easy Go_, wherein Hogan goes to England, accompanied by Klink, to steal a P-51 for the Germans (a scheme he undermines posthaste, of course :D )_

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**Touching Heaven  
**_1944_

The Mustang was a dream he'd heard. Fast, maneuverable, resilient he'd heard. So why was he stuck with this travesty? Well, he knew why, but his fingers were itching for the real thing. Instead, he was cursed with a fraud on top of having to leave England, a Daimler-Benz V-engine instead of a Merlin droning under the hood, radio and internal tank removed for Klink to hover over his shoulder and drive him crazy. He wondered whether he could just dump the German and keep on flying for forever …

Probably not.

But perhaps a little loop?

"HOGAAAN!"

Yep, that helped.

* * *

_A/N: Mustang – North American Aviation __P-51 Mustang (here P-51C by my estimation; the episode uses footage of several models according to the wiki)__, a US single-prop fighter with a British Rolls-Royce Merlin V-engine – usually anyways; this one is graced with an undetermined Messerschmitt engine_


	12. Heaven Touching

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–**o( 12 )o**–

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_**season:**__ 6_

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**Heaven Touching  
**_1944_

Christmas was nearing, so was the front. The war would end soon, but thoughts of what came after kept Hogan awake. The "real" world seemed so far removed from their own reality, so foreign, intangible. Would there even be a place for them in it? Could they fit in? …

_Home. Wind.  
Flying.  
The captured Messerschmitt engine still roared away happily, making his pride and joy a unique bird. A boy sat in the front seat.  
His nephew.  
"You wanna take the stick?" he asked.  
"Can I?"  
Joy. Excitement.  
"Sure," he smiled, remembering._

Worry lines smoothed. The sleeping man sighed contentedly.

* * *

_A/N: still the same P-51C Mustang, civilian version, two-seated, double-controlled … and just a dream, of course (such versions existed, though, at least in the form of re-manufactured models made by the Cavalier Aircraft Corporation)_


End file.
